This is my first post on this website but I have visited this forum many, many times from when Lexie was 8 weeks until today. Great source of information and got me through a lot of digestive issues when she was younger.

Lexie is now 5.5 years and 90lbs. According to the vet, she may have injured her ACL on both knees in the past but both have self-healed enough that she remains mobile without struggling (no limping). She takes Dasuquin once a day and I have Metacam for when I see she has trouble getting up or walking.

Just last week, I started hearing a popping noise when we did our daily walks (the sound is like when you crack your knuckles). The sound only comes from one knee and when I contacted my vet, she gave me three options: TPLO, lateral imbrication or platelet rich injections.

Lexie is not limping and as far as I can tell, moves normally with the exception of the popping noise. While I am not opposed to surgery, I do want to avoid it because Lexie had issues with blood clotting and excess bleeding when she was spayed. If there is an alternative that does not involve major surgery, I'll take that.

I've seen plenty of posts on TPLO but I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience with the lateral imbrication or platelet rich plasma injections that they can share.

My vet did the platelet injections on my dog. My dog had a torn right ACL and a partially torn left ACL. The right one was repaired doing a tightrope. My dog is only 30 pounds (mix breed). They did the injections and cold laser therapy on both knees. This was almost a year ago. He's still walking around, but I can tell the left one will need to be repaired. If he swims or runs to much he will hold the left one up when he walks. We are hoping it holds out to winter.

The platelet injections and cold laser therapy may have bought us some time.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.Riley - 11/05/2012-8/30/2013 (Myasthenia Gravis)
He will always be in my heart.

I spoke to my ortho who has replaced the knees of just about everyone in my husband's family about this when Jax tore hers. He told me he was all set up to do it, that the preliminary information looked great, but in the end the final studies did not support it. He was very disappointed. I would look into stem cell therapy instead. That has some promising info to it.

Interesting about that. We've been using the ACP with many different cases, especially tendon injuries and have been having a decent amount of success with it. It also seems to help with different soft tissue injuries, helping just to promote healing and repair within the tissue. We have used it more in conjunction with surgery or with more mild tears than with something really big.

Lateral imbrication is the same as tightrope or lateral suture. It uses what is basically like fishing line to externally create a new support for the joint. We some days use this in conjunction with a TPLO if the meniscus in the knee is totally destroyed.

If she has a clotting disorder and the place you get surgery knows about it, there are precautions that they can take to help keep bleeding down to a minimum. We have to do surgery at times on dogs with disorders like that. There are different things like plasma, you can give just platelets, we keep different hemostatic materials about. If she has a clotting disorder, I definitely would go to a specialty/university for surgery since they'll likely have the most experience with things like that, and plans for making the surgery as safe as possible.

I hadn't heard of stem cell therapy until now so I might look into that as an alternative. Because she isn't showing any difficulty walking around, I am going to hold off until I have more information about all options available to us.

Thanks again...like I said before, this forum is a great place for dog owners.

If your dogs problems self healed why is any treatment necessary? Popping is often a meniscus which happened to my Penny after both her legs 'self healed' very painful required surgery to remove the damaged meniscus. While in surgery the surgeon said her scar tissue that had developed was more than adequate to support her knees, no drawer movement, so nothing further was done other than what needed to be addressed. She's been fine now for years.

Natalie

enjoying life with Penny 6/04 & Blaze 11/12while Sasha watches over us

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The only change I noticed was the popping noise which freaked me out. During my previous vet visits, my vet had indicated that Lexie may or may not need treatment as time progresses.

I haven't seen a reduction in her mobility since I noticed the popping but I did reduce her physical activity because of it. I think I'm going to take her to the vet for an x-ray so we can see if treatment is required.

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